1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to manually operated pneumatic launchers for toy projectiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to pneumatic launchers that hold and automatically reload multiple toy projectiles.
2. Prior Art Description
There are many toy projectile launchers that work by squeezing an air bladder to create a pulse of air, and then using the pulse of air to launch a projectile from a tube. Many such launchers are handheld guns, where the air bladder is compressed by the hand of the user holding the gun. The problem with such toy projectile launchers is that a bladder compressed by hand, especially a child's hand, can only create a small pulse of air. Consequently, only small projectiles can be launched and those projectiles can only be launched at limited speeds.
In order to launch larger toy projectiles at greater speeds, toys were designed with air bladders that are separate from the launcher. The air bladder is designed to be placed on the ground and jumped upon by the user. By jumping onto the air bladder, the air bladder is compressed with the full weight of the user. Thus, even a child can produce a significant pulse of air.
The first toy projectile launcher that used a separate foot-compressed air bladder was presented in 1961 in U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,297 to Bednar, entitled Toy Rocket. Since then, a variety of commercial products have come to market using the concept. Many of the commercial products represent variations on the theme and show a toy rocket projectile in some form that is launched by some form of a foot-compressed air bladder. The variant toys are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,006 to Breslow, entitled Toy Rocket With Pneumatic Launcher.
Although many variations of the toy projectile launcher have been produced, they all share a common limitation. That limitation is that the launchers can only fire a single projectile and after each shot, the launcher must be reloaded. As such, after one toy projectile is launched, the next projectile cannot be launched for several seconds. Furthermore, if the launcher is being operated by only a single person, that person must bend down to load a projectile on the launcher and then jump up to stomp on the air bladder. If done many times in rapid succession, this can become physically exhausting.
The play value of a toy projectile launcher with a foot-compressed air bladder can be significantly increased if the launcher was capable of automatically reloading itself after a projectile is fired. In this manner, a person could fire multiple projectiles as fast as a person can jump on the air bladder. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.